Movies: What's playing

Published Friday, November 07, 2003

Brother Bear

A Disney movie set in an Edenic Pacific Northwest some 10,000 years in the past, its world of lush waterfalls and verdant forests is one we'd like to vacation in forever. It does have a satisfying ending and it's nice to see a G-rated film without bathroom humor, but there is too much formula and not enough reason to pay attention here. With the voices of Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and D.B. Sweeney.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Quentin Tarantino returns with this Hong Kong-style action film about a woman who awakens from a coma four years after taking a bullet in the head and sets out for revenge against a team of assassins.

Mystic River

A major American motion picture, an overpowering piece of work that involves some of the most basic human emotions: love, hate, fear, revenge, despair. Directed by Clint Eastwood with absolute confidence and remarkable control, it owes both its success and its significance to the way it seamlessly unites elements that are difficult to pull off on their own, much less together.

School of Rock

Jack Black stars in an amiable farce tailored specifically to the actor's generous dimensions, it takes a clever premise and Black's unflagging manic energy and comes up with a pleasing mainstream comedy that uses new people and attitudes to entertain in old-fashioned ways. A rowdy rock musician teaches at a straight-laced private school.